Another bag of vegetables, plus the return of winter

I'm pretty sure spring will never come to Copenhagen. We had a few warm days last week (warm by Danish standards, which means we hit 10C/50F), but it turns out the weather gods were just teasing us. We dropped back to below freezing over the weekend, and Wednesday morning I woke up to a snow storm. Our central yard is back to its cold, white self. Really, where is spring?!?

Cold weather equals more root vegetables in my weekly bag of organic, local, seasonal vegetables. This bag included 3 leeks, celeriac (or celery root), two different kinds of beets, parsnips, potatoes, and mushrooms. I'm not the biggest fan of mushrooms (my Mom is deathly allergic to both mushrooms and eggplant, so I never ate them growing up. I'm trying to learn to like them both, but I'm still not a big fan), so I'm still trying to get through the ones I received. I did make a pizza last night that included sautéed mushroom... see, I'm trying. All of the other vegetables, though, have been eaten!
With the return of winter weather comes warm, hearty soups. I made a potato and leek soup using the leeks and some of the potatoes from my bag.

I also made a celeriac, broccoli stem, and apple soup. Have you been eating the broccoli florets and tossing the stems? Well, don't! The stems are delicious. I use them in stir-frys and soups all the time. Waste not, want not.

I also made a spicy parsnip and coconut milk soup. I won't show the picture, because honestly it looks like a bowl of brownish gloop, but I promise it was tasty! I found the recipe here.

Not everything has to be a soup, though. For our dinner party last weekend, I served this beet, kale, and goat cheese side dish to accompany the main course of duck. Bobby and I both love beets, especially when served with goat cheese, so this was a nice treat. You can find the idea behind the recipe here.